Joel on Software
Paper Prototype
by Joel Spolsky 2003/05/16
Years ago, the Excel team was trying to figure out if it would be a good idea to allow users to drag and drop cells using the mouse. They had a couple of interns "whip up a prototype" suitable for usability testing, using the cutting edge Visual Basic 1.0. Building the prototype took all summer, because it had to duplicate so much of Excel's real functionality or you couldn't do a real usability test.
数年前，Excel开发团队曾想搞清楚 让用户用鼠标拖放单元格 到底是不是个好主意。 他们雇佣了几个实习生“搭建一个原型”用来做可用性测试，使用当时的尖端科技VB1.0. 搭建这个原型就花了整个暑假，因为你必须要重新实现Excel的真实功能，不然你就没法进行可用性测试。
The conclusion of the usability test? Yes, it was a good feature! The programmer in charge spent maybe a week and completely implemented the drag and drop feature. The joke is, of course, that the whole point of creating a prototype is to "save time."
可用性测试的结论？是的，是个不错的特性！ 最后负责的程序员可能只花了一个礼拜完整的实现了这个拖放功能。 可笑的点，当然在于，当时创建这个原型的初衷完全是为了“节省时间”。
A year later, another top-secret Microsoft team built a complete prototype for a new user interface using the cutting edge productAsymetrix Toolbook (good lord, it's hard to believe that thing survived). This prototype took something like a year to build. The real product: Microsoft Bob, the PCjr of the software world. Another wasted prototype.
一年之后，另一个微软绝密团队为一个新用户界面构造了一个完整的界面原型， 用的是当时的尖端科技产品 AsymetrixToolbook（我的天，真不敢相信这玩意儿居然存活下来了）。 构建这个原型又花了大概一年。 真正的产品： 微软Bob，就像软件世界的PCJr 一样。这是另一个被浪费掉的原型的例子。
I've basically given up on software prototypes. If the prototype can do everything the product can do, it might as well be the product, and if it can't, it's not much use. Luckily, there's a much better idea: paper prototypes, which neatly solve this problem and the iceberg problem in one fell swoop. Even luckier, Carolyn Snyder has just written a great new book, Paper Prototyping, on the subject. This is an essential reference for anyone designing user interfaces, and it's well written to boot.
我基本已经放弃了软件原型的这种想法。 如果一个原型能够完成软件产品的大部分功能，那么这个原型就是软件产品本身；如果不能，那么这个原型又没多大用。 幸运的是：还有更好的主意：白纸模型，一下子漂亮的解决了这个问题 以及 “冰山问题”。 更巧的是，Carolyn Snyder 刚写了一本好书， 纸质原型，关于这个话题。 这实际上是任何设计用户界面的人的必备参考书， 写的太妙了。